


A Sleepless Flight

by innerslytherin



Series: Morgan/Reid Series [1]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-21
Updated: 2009-11-21
Packaged: 2017-10-03 13:05:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/innerslytherin/pseuds/innerslytherin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He can't figure out what it is that draws him to Reid. Preslash.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Sleepless Flight

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Severity_Softly for the beta.

The jet is quiet, nose turned homeward. The team is resting.  Derek has his headphones on, his music turned low, his eyes mostly closed to mask the fact that he isn't sleeping.  If Hotch notices, he'll think it's the case that's keeping Derek awake, the murder of those children troubling him.  But that isn't it, not tonight, not this case.   
    
Tonight, it's Reid who's keeping him awake.   
    
That's been happening a lot over the past several months. And Derek doesn't know what to do about it any more than he knows what's started it. He can't figure out what it is that draws him to Reid.   
    
It isn't the urge to protect, or not exactly.  He's been cast in the role of the protector a lot of times, in a lot of ways.  He's protected his mother and sisters from the things that happened to him.  He's protected all the members of his team.  He's served as a protector of the innocent, as a crusader against the abuse of children, women, elderly.  Yes, he _is_ moved to protect Reid, that isn't the question.  Reid is incredibly innocent at times, for all the book-learning that's crammed into his pretty head.  They all, he thinks, are moved to protect Reid.   
    
It isn't Reid's intelligence, or not exactly.  Yes, Reid _is_ intelligent, and Derek knows himself for nothing but a dumb jock in comparison, despite the fact that he isn't really stupid.   And yes, Reid's intelligence is sometimes annoying, when he shows it off casually--not that he's really trying to prove he's smarter. Derek knows Reid thinks his only worth comes from his brain. The entire team thinks differently, if Reid could only see it.   
    
It is, he decides, the strange dichotomy between confidence and vulnerability; the darkness and brilliance; the awkwardness and careless grace; the bitten lip and the beaming smile.  It's the odd diffidence Reid occasionally displays, turning to Derek for assurance and guidance, even comfort, instead of Hotch.  It's the responsibility he felt when Elle went off the rails.  It's the deep well of strength and resourcefulness he showed while in Hankle's clutches, and the frightening weakness afterwards.   
    
It's the memory of Reid in the pool with Lila Archer, the look on his face when Derek called him a hero.  It's the terrible, painful fear that clutched at Derek's heart when he heard that gunshot outside the train, and wondered if he'd allowed them to send Reid in to his death.  
    
And it's none of those things.  Instead it's his warm brown eyes, his expressive eyebrows.  It's the way he smiles.  It's the ridiculous cardigans and his great-grandfather's ties and the mismatched socks.  It's the confidence that makes him sit up straight when he has a deck of cards in his hands.

It's the fact that Spencer Reid is way too good for him.  It's the fact that he would never look at Derek that way, even if he showed any inclination to look at men.  It's the fact that Spencer makes Derek want to be _more_.   
    
It just is.   
    
And Derek doesn't know what to do with that.


End file.
